Get back and do it again indeed. That’s what I thought when I blew out my knee. My doctors tried to set expectations low but I had already decided my injury wasn’t going to hold me down. While you still draw breath, there are no excuses for not pushing ahead.

Life is tough, that’s a given. When you stand up, you’re gonna be shoved back down. When you’re down you’re gonna be stepped on. My advice to you doesn’t come with a lot of bells and whistles. It’s no secret, you’ll fall down, you’ll stumble, you’ll get pushed, you’ll land square on your face. But every time that happens, you get back on your feet. You get up just as fast as you can. No matter how many times you need to do this.

I used to think that long distance sports were boring. I mean running is just putting one foot in front of the other a bazillion times in a row. It’s really unlikely that you have to face the same fears But then I started running. And then racing. While my distances are quite short, I’ve realized just how invigorating it is.

But the Ironman is a whole other beast:

2.4 mile swim

112 mile bike

26.2 mile run

That is a lot of distance to cover. Any one of these activities is challenging – attaching them together is pretty nuts. But people do it. And not just young healthy people. Old people. Disabled people. Fat guys. This race is both monumentally hard and seriously doable for the people who put in the work.

I think the lesson here is that ordinary people can accomplish unimaginably hard things given proper training and dedication. If you have more time, you should watch the video below of Matt Hoover from The Biggest Loser who runs at 8:40 final mile, 17 hours after starting the race. That is no joke. Next time you think you can’t do something, think of this.

Parkour / Freerunning is an activity I really admire and I was reminded of it when I was emailed by Zachary Cohn, an Art of Ass-Kicking reader and vice chair of Parkour Visions. There are a lot of gymnastics and martial arts elements to Parkour / Freerunning and I can really appreciate how hard these things are. I’m a little sad that I’ll never really be able to participate because my bum knee wouldn’t be able to handle the landings, but it’s sure fun to watch.

This video is an awesome reminder of what’s possible with coaching, practice, courage and effort. None of these people were born knowing how to do flips off walls or jump off high surfaces with a twisting motion and just roll out of it. And you better believe they were pretty damn scared the first dozen times (or more) when they were trying it on their own. But they pushed through their fears, injuries and self-doubt to reach this high level of ability. And you can too.

I love Gatorade and though I haven’t tried G3, I assume when taken properly, it probably helps with recovery. I mainly share this video because of it’s final message: next game comes quick.

The thing about work, success and life in general is that it keeps going. It never stops. Get some work done? New work is on it’s way. Write a great blog post? Tomorrow it’s old news. Close a deal with a new customer? You’ll be fighting to keep an old one in a minute.

This isn’t to say you can’t make progress or growth isn’t possible, but that pacing yourself is important. Work in sprints, but make time for recovery, because it never ends.

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